An end to the reading wars? More US schools
embrace phonics
Associated Press,
by
Heather Hollingsworth
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
4/20/2023 1:20:11 AM
Move over “Dick and Jane.” A different approach to teaching kids how to read is on the rise.
For decades, two schools of thought have clashed on how to best teach children to read, with passionate backers on each side of the so-called reading wars. The battle has reached into homes via commercials for Hooked on Phonics materials and through shoebox dioramas assigned by teachers seeking to instill a love of literature.
But momentum has shifted lately in favor of the “science of reading.” The term refers to decades of research in fields including brain science that point to effective strategies for teaching kids to read.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Venturer 4/20/2023 1:37:17 AM (No. 1451590)
I read pretty well and they never shoved this Horse dung at me.
11 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
pc1eszm 4/20/2023 2:49:00 AM (No. 1451604)
They really should go back to the basics, teach phonics and be done with it. When my sister was in 1st grade, my mother taught ME how to read while helping my sister with her phonics homework. I was 4.
31 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bdog 4/20/2023 3:09:11 AM (No. 1451605)
This has been going on since the end of the WWII. We were taught phonics in the eastern half of the country in Catholic schools and my parents re-enforced it at home. I'm pretty sure it was taught in public schools In later grades we had to identify the origin of words in the dictionary and report on them. If the schools today were teaching geography the kids wouldn't know how to pronounce most of the countries.
17 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 4/20/2023 3:30:01 AM (No. 1451610)
Why does "Dick and Jane" have to move over? Sixty years ago I was taught to read by phonics and my first reader was "Dick and Jane". Besides, I bet "Dick and Jane" hasn't been in a first grade classroom in fifty years. How old is Heather Hollingsworth? You can always tell the most successful teaching techniques because they're always the most controversial and the ones they're always trying to "innovate" or replace.
Side Bar: I would attest, from personal experience, to the importance of first grade phonics teachers being native English speakers. My grade one Irish nun was "straight off the boat", as my Dad would say, with a stout brogue. My Dad enjoyed me reading aloud, "Run, Dick, run! Run, Jane, run!" He'd turn red laughing at the way I rolled the r's.
33 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Sully 4/20/2023 6:13:11 AM (No. 1451659)
OMGodness. Every 20 years they trot out this nonsense. It was called "sight reading," "whole language reading" and who knows what before that. It Doesn't Work. It Never worked.
Alphabet languages need phonics. Period. But the teachers insist on this nonsense bc they are LAZY and incompetent. Teaching phonics is hard work. And teachers are lazy and they are activists. They are not teachers. That is the reason. And every time they push it they leave a wake of illiteracy.
22 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
anniebc 4/20/2023 6:25:32 AM (No. 1451666)
Tell us how and why they cast phonics aside for look-say and anything that would make it hard for children to learn to read, Heather. Whole language lost, but they compromised with something that still inhibited reading. My parents had limited education, but they demanded that we know how to read before entering first grade. This was back when kindergarten was a short period in the summer and was sold to prep a child for entering the school world. I taught my son to read, he was reading at middle school level by the time he entered kindergarten. He decided to become a dumb jock in high school, but he never lost the ability to read, write, and speak properly. My daughter had a foundation of phonics, but it took her more time than her brother to read fluently. She went on to gifted programs and pushes from educators to advance her a whole grade level and skip kindergarten altogether. She graduated from high school, undergrad and grad top of her class and with honors. The article said that children learning to read happens almost magically. Parents can teach their children to read in most situations. Look-say is confusing and subjective. Educators are still refusing simple phonics by calling it science of reading; they're sore losers, I guess. It's phonics, folks.
15 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/20/2023 8:06:06 AM (No. 1451720)
Hmmmm, it took a generation or two of dumbed down kids to prove our publik skool system is an expensive failure. The most they can do now is work for the government.
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 4/20/2023 8:13:51 AM (No. 1451729)
Phonics, mid 60's grade school. Word origins, Latin, spelling and penmanship. These learned (because they were taught!) basics have served me well over the years and helped me to be an avid reader and writer with excellent comprehensive skills.
14 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Corndoggies 4/20/2023 8:36:23 AM (No. 1451751)
Don’t forget about Spot. Run, Spot, run!
11 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Encore 4/20/2023 9:12:26 AM (No. 1451784)
Don’t you see? It should be ‘run Dauntavius, run’ or ‘run Pedro, run’. But, Dauntavius keeps falling because his britches are hanging too low and Pedro, well FJB says Pedro gets to have a white boy do his running for him.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Gordon Mills 4/20/2023 10:33:04 AM (No. 1451868)
The students who learned to read the old-fashioned way were responsible for creating computers, placing men on the moon, and beginning the exploration of space.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LadyVet 4/20/2023 10:52:02 AM (No. 1451887)
The only reason the "whole word" / "look and say" had any signs of working is that parents were teaching phonics at home. Once the point was reached that so many parents had no phonics training and little reading ability, they could not train their own kids. And the "proof" evaporated. Now there are some schools where mot a single student is proficient in reading. Randi Weingarten, the ugly, rude, loud, old lesbian head of the teachers' union should be tarred and feathered for her part in damaging American kids. It might even improve her appearance.
12 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Starboard_side 4/20/2023 11:50:57 AM (No. 1451946)
It's not rocket science, and not sure why they needed "decades of research" either, except they found a way to help employ more "educators" who don't do anything in, or for, the classroom.
5 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Imright"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)